Nick Seeler called up from Iowa, will make Wild debut

Defenseman Nick Seeler had just grabbed breakfast with his parents at PerKup Café in Des Moines when he received a call from Wild assistant general manager Brent Flahr.

He felt shock initially, the news delivered from the other end of the conversation surprising him.

But then he realized what it meant, and excitement washed over him.

His dream was about to come true.

"It's a once-in-a-lifetime thing to get the first call-up," Seeler said. "I'm just glad it happened. I'm grateful for the opportunity, and I'm going to make the best of it."

After getting recalled by the Wild from Iowa of the American Hockey League on Sunday, Seeler is set to make his NHL debut Tuesday against the Rangers at Xcel Energy Center.

The Eden Prairie native will become the 25th Minnesotan to skate in a regular-season game for the Wild and just the fifth to log his first career game with the organization — a fitting introduction to the league after the 24-year-old won two Minnesota Class AA hockey championships at Eden Prairie and fulfilled a childhood ambition to suit up for the Gophers. He spent his junior season at Minnesota.

Seeler is poised to beef up the Wild's blue line with his physical style — an approach that had merited him a team-leading 74 penalty minutes in 49 games with Iowa this season.

"He's big," coach Bruce Boudreau said of the 6-foot-2, 200-pound Seeler. "He's a defensive defenseman. I think that's going to bode well for us."

But in his second pro season, Seeler has noticed an uptick in confidence and he's been able to help out on offense; he's racked up 12 assists after tallying just five the previous campaign.

"My decisions have been better with the puck and kind of making that simple pass out of the zone," he said.

Seeler, who was drafted in the fifth round in 2011 by the Wild, will be the ninth Iowa player (including his former Eden Prairie teammate Kyle Rau) to play for the Wild this season. Injuries, most recently to defenseman Jonas Brodin, have stoked the need for depth, but team brass also anticipates the minor league squad providing support for the Wild the rest of the way.

Although each team caters to its respective personnel, there are plenty of similarities between how the two want to play, which Seeler was made aware of Monday when he practiced with a portion of the group. Veterans Mikko Koivu, Matt Cullen, Eric Staal, Ryan Suter, Jared Spurgeon and Devan Dubnyk — who was named the NHL's third star of the week after going 2-0-1 with a 1.96 goals-against average and .950 save percentage — skipped the session to rest up.

That cohesiveness between the parent club and its affiliate can help ease the transition a player like Seeler is facing.